Back home

Charles and I arrived home from our film school adventure last night. Unfortunately there was a fire burning  close to my home, maybe 10 miles away.  Fire is the natural disaster we in the foothills dread.  No flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes or earthquakes (thank you, Lord) but fire is a real threat in our dry summer months.  Fortunately, it is now out after burning 1300 acres and more. At least one home.  I haven't heard any news of it this morning.  The smoke has gone and there is no smell of it in the air.

We were about 80 miles away when a friend called to see if I was 'all right'.  Then told me about the fire.  I called my daughter who said she would drive the 48 miles to my home so she could find the cats and try to save photos and such if the fire was near.

This is a photo of the fire from 30 miles away.

 

I kept saying to Charles. "That's not a pretty sight."  Then I changed to saying, "That's so ugly."

When we got to my house, Charles' parents were waiting.  All was well, but we were still nervous if the wind would change and start toward us. It never did.  I am so thankful for our firefighters and the pilots in the planes who were also fighting it.

Filmed in my driveway.  Voices of my family and I. Please excuse the weird change of angle. This plane circled 2 times then flew directly into the smoke and didn't come back in view.  You can see the fire in the last part.  It was sunset so the smoke was pink tinged.

About the film school?   I will write a post soon with photos.  And sewing?  Even this afternoon, I'll be back at it with updates any day now.

UPDATE:  Adding this 2 hours later.  Fire is still burning, there is smoke at my house and all the way down into the valley.  The some firefighters are at the staging area about 1 mile from me.  I do not see planes.  Some residents have been evacuated to the El Dorado County Fairgrounds.

The smoke settling over the valley. I'm in Shingle Springs looking west.

Off On An Adventure

I am leaving for another great Road Scholar program with my grandson, the fabulous Charles.  This is our third one.  It is called Intergenerational Hollywood Film School.  For five days we'll learn with other grands and kids what is involved in producing a film.  Our drive will take about 6 hours to Glendale, California.

Our first trip was also to southern California.  We went to Buena Park for a wonderful program about crime scene investigation which they don't seem to have any more.  Too bad it was fascinating.

Learning about fingerprinting.

 The crime scene being processed. Note body on the table. Grandparents could offer suggestions only.

                      The kids were making plaster casts of their foot.

Last summer we went to Oregon for photography.   I did write a post about this last year, but here are a couple more pics from that one.

              There's Charles with his tripod.  We did have a good time. 

Closing for now,  must pack and do a bunch of other things.  I'll be back.

"Too Darn Hot"

"It's too darn hot,
It's too darn hot,
I'd like to sup with my baby tonight,
Refill the cup with my baby tonight.
I like to sup with my baby to night
Refill the cup with my baby tonight,
But  I ain't up to my baby tonight
'Cause it's too darn hot!"
Words and music by Cole Porter.
Watch this clip of Ann Miller singing and dancing to this song.  It'll make you even hotter. But she is a great dancer.   Sorry if there's an ad.
And now to cool you down.  A few photos of cold things.  I only took one the rest are from the internet.  Enjoy.

A glacier.

An iceberg

                                                     Rain

Shaved ice, especially blue

Snow at my house, this doesn't happen often

                                                  Ice cream cones

Try to keep cool. Yes?

Cabin in the Wood

Little cabin in the wood,

Little man at the window stood.

Saw a rabbit hopping by...













Okay,  I'll stop.   I was once a pre-school teacher and sometimes I just can't help it.   This came on me just now when I was thinking about my visit this past few days to a lovely cabin in the Plumas National Forest.  See photo above.

To protect the people to whom the cabin belongs, I won't show any more photos of the cabin.  I took a bunch because the inside was so nice and the views through the windows were beautiful.  Here are some I took on route and in the vicinity.

Lupines

A view off Highway 20 with clouds

Flowers growing wild along the road.

 

On route near Sierraville from the driver's seat.  Yikes.

Thanks to Lynne and Pam and the generous cabin owners for a very nice few days.

More sewing coming up. Ciao.

Sewing a little

Aha!  I finished the blue skirt.

Okay, if you look closely, you can tell I have not put the hem up yet.   Don't look.  But it fits me and I won't need to make much of a hem so I decided to post it now instead of later.

A close-up of a gore.  The fabric looks like tiny bubbles.  Oh, remember that song by Don Ho?




I've three current projects going besides hemming the blue skirt.

 #1 A blue jean bin project.

I must admit this photo doesn't tell you much.  A surprise awaits. Soon.


#2   A denim vest jacket for my sister.  No photos of any kind, but stay tuned there will be some.  I have the fabric and notions, but no picture.

#3      Two days ago I experienced serendipity.  Although I needed some deck seating,  I wasn't actively looking.  My old chairs had one by one torn the seats from the chair frames. Not one of the four is usable.  Serendipity.
I found a parking space in front of World Market though I had not planned to go there.   Out in front there were some colorful garden chairs.  I saw. I sat. I bought.

 

Red, green, yellow and orange.  They are comfortable as they are, but because they're metal I decided chair pads would be necessary.

           

    I made a pattern from pages from a Road Scholar brochure. No other     paper  was available.

I bought 1/2 inch foam.

                       And I found really nice fabric as colorful as my chairs.


Check back for the finished projects, but don't expect too much too soon.
I am only human.  I bet you knew that about me, didn't you?

 Bye for now.  I must sew.

Post Script.  When I made the link to YouTube for Don Ho there wasn't an ad, now there is. Aack, but it's short and he's worth the wait.